ABOUT HELEN MACKINNON

" As a child, I was fascinated by musical tones.  From clanging church bells on holiday to the monotone beep that a car park ticket machine makes as it spits out your ticket. Sound-bites caught my attention and challenged me to create sounds of my own. 

 

I grew up with a musical mother, a father whose playlist went from Monteverdi to Pink Floyd and a grandmother who taught me classical piano.  Add to that, years of singing in church choirs, a brief affair with Scottish fiddle-playing and an insatiable appetite for film scores.  Childhood was a musical melting pot.  When I was 11, I remember my uncle teaching me a few chords from Deacon Blue's Dignity and how to improvise.  It felt a world apart from years of classical studies and from that day, the piano and I were inseparable and explored new sounds together.

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Composing is a journey of life's rich encounters playing with the creations of my mind and spilling onto the manuscript paper in search of talented performers to bring them to life.  My writing embraces tonality and melody to a degree that can feel rare in the contemporary classical world.  I believe that a carefully-carved melodic line connects with something ancient, secret and familiar inside us.

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I hope you enjoy exploring my work." 

                                                                                     Helen